Pricked

He said it would only hurt a little... On her 16th birthday, Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. On my 22nd, I pricked mine on the needle of a tattoo machine wielded by a beautifully complicated man who would go on to become my ruin. Madden Ransom was a lot of things. Unfeeling. Opinionated. Rebellious. A tattoo artist with no tattoos, the man was an enigma and then some. And while Sleeping Beauty fell into a peaceful slumber as she awaited true love's kiss, I fell into something else entirely - my heart in the hands of a man who'd never given nor received anything remotely like love. I know now that when Madden told me it would only hurt a little... he didn't mean the tattoo. It turns out you can't un-love someone, even after you find out he's the last person you have any business loving. And that is the most painful truth of all. Or it was... until his last confession.